Classics – Rana the Reader

Tolstoy’s Resurrection

‘But human beings cannot be treated without love, any more than bees can be handled without care.’ (p 402). Tolstoy is my favourite writer ever since I read War and Peace when I was 16. It is a novel of great length and scope - I was 15 when I started reading it. There is … Continue reading Tolstoy’s Resurrection

Tralfamadorians & A Red Hunting Cap

I have recently read two amazing novels about loss of innocence by authors who had similar experiences. Both witnessed the horrors of WWII: Kurt Vonnegut was at Dresden as it burnt down to ashes and J. D. Salinger was one of the first American soldiers to enter a Nazi extermination camp. Yet, they dealt with … Continue reading Tralfamadorians & A Red Hunting Cap

“Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”

…Thus, we start to follow Clarissa Dalloway for a warm day of July as she walks through the streets of London, getting ready for one of her celebrated dinner parties. The city of London is almost presented as a character with large breadth and movement, hourly marked by the bell. It changes within the … Continue reading “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”

‘O youth! youth! you go your way heedless, uncaring – as if you owned all the treasures of the world.’ Fathers and Sons by Turgenev

Fathers and Sons, as the title suggests, is a book about generation conflict set in early 1860s, an important transitional period in Russian history. Arkady and Bazarov return to their families after completing their education in St Petersburg. Their parents are of different backgrounds: Arkady’s father, Nikolai Petrovich, is a wealthy and educated landowner whereas … Continue reading ‘O youth! youth! you go your way heedless, uncaring – as if you owned all the treasures of the world.’ Fathers and Sons by Turgenev

“Knowledge is knowing Frankenstein wasn’t the monster. Wisdom is knowing that he was.”

Mary Shelley The story of the scientist who ‘plays God’ and creates a monster is so popular that it requires no introduction. Who requires introduction is Mary Shelley, the author of this horrible, scary Gothic novel. She was the daughter of the anarchist political author William Godwin and the feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother … Continue reading “Knowledge is knowing Frankenstein wasn’t the monster. Wisdom is knowing that he was.”